Cross Stitching For Beginners

In November I decided to do two cross-stitches to give away as Christmas gifts. Since I hadn't left myself a lot of time to do them, I decided to go with pre-printed instead of counted. These two designs by Dimensions worked perfectly.

The first, a gift for my Mother-in-Law who loves her pets, is a picture of an orange kitty and a blond dog accented by hearts and paw prints. The caption says, "Pets Leave Paw Prints On Our Hearts."

The second is a frame of sunshine and flowers with The Senility Prayer stitched inside. Read that again slowly. Yep, it's the Senility Prayer, not the Serenity Prayer! While the original is very inspirational, this spoof is just plain fun.

For those of you who don't know it, the Serenity Prayer says, "God grant me the grace to accept the things I cannot change; the courage to change the things I can; and the wisdom to know the difference."

The Senility Prayer, however, goes like this:"Grant me the senility to forget the people I never liked; the good fortune to run into the people I do like; and the eyesight to tell the difference." Needless to say, it was a real hit at our family gift exchange!

I thoroughly enjoyed putting these two crafts together, and I was very impressed by how easy and user-friendly Dimensions had made them. Each cross stitch package came with the pre-printed stitching cloth, all of the floss needed to stitch it, a pattern to show which stitches went where, a beginner's guide that taught all the stitch types you needed to know, and instructions on how to properly frame your finished work of art. Oh yes... and a needle. An embroidery hoop is the only thing you need in addition to this kit. Everything else is there for you.

In short, someone who had never stitched before could easily pick up this package and make a very beautiful piece of work that will fool everyone into thinking they had been doing it for years.

Next time I want to cross-stitch, I will definitely be buying Dimensions!